Toward Understanding: Multiple Points of Entry/Exit: Becoming Convection, Sea Floor Spreading & Subduction 2.17/18

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Photos (top to bottom): photo1: a schematic showing how performances of understanding (in which students practice their understanding), with multiple points of entry/exit, might cluster around understanding goals; photos 2-4: images of related media; photos 5-9: students are asked to construct a color-coded stratigraphy of Dakar, based upon our discussions, references, and observations in the field; photos 10-12: students design and rehearse skits; photos 13-19: groups perform their skits for their classmates.

Teaching for understanding requires multiple approaches to complex concepts, with an eye to richness -- activities which engage the student. As we know well from our own experience, understanding deepens as we broaden and vary the entry points:

lecture

lecture + reading

lecture + reading + discussion

lecture + reading + discussion + media

lecture + reading + discussion + media + illustration

lecture + reading + discussion + media + illustration + model-making

lecture + reading + discussion + media + illustration + model-making + performance

Students were last week asked to become plate tectonics, with an emphasis on convection currents (in the mantle), sea floor spreading and subduction. Note the following video clips:

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